There's no doubt that Variety's paywall hurts its online figures. As for The Wrap, in the past I've suggested that the web site might wind up as a loss leader for its conference business. If they can get 1000 people to show up for events like this at $1,700 a person (earlybird special), and they do 3-4 conferences a year, there's definitely a business there. If only a couple hundred people pay, that's a different story.

These numbers above don't necessarily translate to much since Variety might still have (perhaps much) more combined revenue than THR.

The challenge online for e5 Global Media (which bought THR and other publications like MediaWeek from Nielsen) will be trying to sell all those impressions at trade rates, when most of its readers are general consumers who don't work in the television business. Deadline faces the same challenge.

Typically CPMs for consumer advertising aren't nearly as good as the rates for trade advertising, so massive traffic doesn't necessarily mean massive revenue.